Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint: Marley's Freedom will try to run them down

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will run eight horses in Breeders’ Cup races this weekend at Churchill Downs, and if fans had to pick just one as their best bet, many would land on Marley’s Freedom in the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint.

“I’ve had a lot of favorites on Breeders’ Cup Day where I’ve gotten the big donut,” Baffert said. “You’re just hoping to win one. It’s like the baseball playoffs – I just hope I don’t get shut out.”

Marley’s Freedom, with Mike Smith to ride, will break from post 13 in an oversubscribed field in the Grade 1 Filly and Mare Sprint, the first of nine straight Breeders’ Cup Saturday races. It’s the third of 12 overall races, with first post at 10:45 a.m. Eastern and the Filly and Mare Sprint set for noon.

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Marley’s Freedom, the 8-5 morning-line favorite, became a clear-cut divisional leader with her 3 1/4-length triumph in the Grade 1 Ballerina on the Aug. 25 Travers undercard at Saratoga. That was the fourth straight win for the 4-year-old Blame filly.

“I really thought about running her one more time before the Breeders’ Cup, but then I thought, nah, let’s have a fresh horse,” Baffert said. “She’s doing really good coming into this.”

The outer post going this seven-furlong distance is conducive to the highly effective stalking style Marley’s Freedom has developed. She’ll be looking to run down any number of quicker horses trying to build an insurmountable advantage, with her California cohort, Selcourt (post 1, Tyler Baze), perhaps being most dangerous on the front end. Selcourt, a Tiz Wonderful filly, will be making her first start since late March and has had eight recorded workouts at Santa Anita since early September.

“I hope I’ve got her tight enough,” trainer John Sadler said. “We all know how fast she is.”

Among the many other possibilities are three horses who have had Churchill as their main base most of this year – Finley’sluckycharm (post 11, Brian Hernandez Jr.), Golden Mischief (post 5, Florent Geroux), and Mia Mischief (post 8, Ricardo Santana Jr.).

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Finley’sluckycharm has won 6 of 7 starts over the Churchill surface in an outstanding career for Bret Calhoun, who, like Baffert, decided to run straight into the Breeders’ Cup following the Ballerina, in which Finley’sluckycharm put forth a rare clunker when finishing seventh.

“She’s run well fresh before, so we thought this was the best way to go,” Calhoun said. “I like our post and I like the way she’s training into it.”

Golden Mischief, a last-out winner of the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland, has looked particularly sharp in her morning training, according to local observers.

“We’ve just tried to keep her happy and on her game,” said Brad Cox, who trains the Into Mischief filly for Juddmonte Farms.

Mia Mischief, another daughter of Into Mischief, was considered for the TCA before Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen decided to train straight into the race.

“She’s very aggressive and can be very hard on herself mentally,” Asmussen said. “If something happened to go wrong at Keeneland, that might have thrown her off for the Breeders’ Cup. As it is, she’s doing great.”

One of the handful of sleepers in the group is Chalon (post 6, Javier Castellano), who was returning from a nearly four-month layoff when finishing just a head behind Golden Mischief in the TCA.

“We believe she has moved forward off that,” said Arnaud Delacour, who trains the Dialed In filly in northeast Maryland for the Lael Stables of Barbaro fame.

Rounding out a deep cast are Miss Sunset, Happy Like a Fool, Kirby’s Penny, Skye Diamonds, Stormy Embrace, Highway Star, Anonymity, and the lone also-eligible, Dream Pauline.

Highway Star (post 10, Jose Ortiz), a steady New York-bred who won the restricted Iroquois on Oct. 20 at Belmont Park for owners Chester and Mary Broman, is one of two horses here running back in two weeks. The other is Shamrock Rose (post 14, Tyler Gaffalione), winner of the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland the same day.

Shamrock Rose is one of four 3-year-olds in the lineup, along with Mia Mischief, Happy Like a Fool, and Dream Pauline. No 3-year-old filly has won the Filly and Mare Sprint, despite several having been the post-time favorite, including Unique Bella, seventh last year as the 11-10 choice.

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Four starters in the Filly and Mare Sprint are entered to be sold Sunday at Fasig-Tipton – Finley’sluckycharm, Miss Sunset, Selcourt, and Skye Diamonds.

This is the 12th running of the Filly and Mare Sprint, which was one of the new BC events when the format was expanded to two days at Monmouth Park in 2007. Last year, Bar of Gold rallied to win the Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar for the Bromans at a $135.40 mutuel, the second-highest in Breeders’ Cup history.